Rock Hudson had her cracking cases at his side, and Jane Curtin later shared a Greenwich Village brownstone with her; the husky-voiced star has died.
Susan Saint James, the Emmy-winning actress known for “The Name of the Game,” “McMillan & Wife” and “Kate & Allie,” died of pancreatic cancer on Monday, Oct. 26, 2026. She was 80. Her family announced the death, and a representative confirmed it to People.
Saint James prized her time and energy above money and steered both toward anyone who needed a lift, her family said in a family statement, adding that she raised her children to slow down and look after other people. “She never met a stranger,” the statement said.
Jane Curtin, her “Kate & Allie” co-star, paid tribute in a statement on Tuesday, Oct. 27. “We lost a decent person today. Susan St. James was a decent person who made Kate and Allie a joy,” she said, later adding: “Susan was my friend and working with her brought such laughter, community and family to the stage at the Ed Sullivan theater. I’ll miss her.”
The Research Assistant Who Kept Getting Kidnapped
Saint James made her television debut in the 1966 movie “Fame Is the Name of the Game,” opposite Tony Franciosa. The spinoff that followed, the 90-minute NBC drama “The Name of the Game,” ran from 1968 to 1971 and gave her the role of Peggy Maxwell, a research assistant with a habit of being kidnapped.
Three leads rotated through the series, and Peggy answered to each of them: reporter Jeff Dillon, played by Franciosa; publisher Glenn Howard, played by Gene Barry; and editor Dan Farrell, played by Robert Stack. The part won her the 1969 Emmy for supporting actress in a series.
The Contract Fight That Killed Sally
Saint James moved to another NBC wheel series in 1971, “McMillan & Wife,” which alternated with “Columbo” and “McCloud” in the NBC Mystery Movie franchise. Sally McMillan, the wife of Rock Hudson’s San Francisco police commissioner, helped untangle the cases that landed on his desk, and the role brought Saint James three Emmy nominations.
A contract dispute ended her run after five seasons. Her character was killed off in a plane crash, “& Wife” was stripped from the title, and the series ended in 1977.
Films filled the years that followed. She went on the run from the law with Peter Fonda in “Outlaw Blues” (1977), played Dracula’s quarry opposite George Hamilton in “Love at First Bite” (1979), joined a suburban heist with Jessica Lange and Curtin in “How to Beat the High Cost of Living” (1980), and played George Segal’s wife in “Carbon Copy” (1981), the film that introduced Denzel Washington.
Two Divorced Friends, One Brownstone
“Kate & Allie,” created by Sherry Coben, premiered on CBS on March 19, 1984, and paired Saint James’ free-spirited Kate McArdle with Curtin’s straight-laced Allie Lowell. The two played divorced childhood friends raising three children in a shared Greenwich Village brownstone.
The show ran six seasons before its cancellation in 1989. Saint James earned two lead actress Emmy nominations for it, and Curtin won the award twice.
Saint James largely retired from acting once the series ended, settling in Litchfield, Conn., to raise her children. She came back occasionally, playing the mother of her look-alike niece, Christa Miller, on “The Drew Carey Show,” and turning up on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and USA Network’s “Suits.”
Saint James met Dick Ebersol, then the show’s executive producer and the future chairman of NBC Sports, while guest-hosting “Saturday Night Live” in 1981, a stint that changed the rest of her life. They married barely six weeks later. He was her third husband, and the marriage lasted 45 years and produced three sons, Charlie, Willie and Teddy.
An earlier marriage to makeup artist Tom Lucas produced a daughter, Sunshine, and a son, Harmony. Saint James filed for divorce from Ebersol in 2002 and reconciled with him later that year.
A Eulogy Written as Notes
The family spent Thanksgiving in Los Angeles in 2004, and their private plane landed in Colorado on Nov. 28, 2004, so Saint James could get off at the family’s second home. The plane crashed on takeoff for Indiana in snowy weather at Montrose, Colo.
The pilot and a flight attendant died in the crash, as did her youngest son, 14-year-old Edward “Teddy” Ebersol. Her husband and their son Charlie survived with serious injuries.
What she did next, her family said, was the defining act of her life. She delivered Teddy’s eulogy weeks after his death, framing it as a note written to each of her other children and to her husband. NBC News anchor Tim Russert interviewed her days after the crash, and she thanked the people who had reached out and said the family was all right.
Saint James volunteered for the Special Olympics for years and served on its board of directors. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in June 2008.
Ebersol called her “the greatest partner I’ve ever had by far” in his 2022 memoir. Ebersol, four children and seven grandchildren survive her.
She was born Susan Jane Miller in Los Angeles on Aug. 14, 1946, and grew up in Rockford, Ill., where her father had moved the family for work. She modeled as a teenager in Paris, then moved back to Los Angeles at 20 and signed a seven-year contract with Universal Studios.